Our tribute to Ozzy Osbourne

It was just after a moment after 7pm, then all hell broke loose; calls, messages, touch news updates, all of a sudden everything seemed irrelevant, to the average metalhead it was like hearing about a nuclear strike.

Ozzy Osbourne was dead.

It was like a thundercrack, everybody knew he was sick but nobody quite seemed to know just how sick he was. The man took so much in his life that people were starting to believe that he’d found some forbidden alchemy that even the emperors of the Qin dynasty couldn’t suss out and had, in fact, become an immortal. If the final performance at Villa Park was anything to go off, it appeared that Ozzy had quite a few rounds left in the chamber, maybe even a couple of performances or perhaps even an album up his sleeve.

But it was not meant to be, a mere two-ish weeks after the show’s completion we now have our figurehead ascending to godhood far too soon. 

Deified in life and canonized in death, never before has so much been owed to someone who couldn’t seem to recognise which room he was in at any given time. He was metal’s bumbling father figure, a universal constant to old-heads and youngbloods everywhere – their bat-shit dad who couldn’t figure out how to work the TV remote.

Everyone’s got their own Ozzy; true veterans will have Sabbath-era Ozzy as their idol, older fans will remember in the 80s when the Blizzard of Oz really took hold with his solo career, even fans in the 90s had the incredible reunion shows to go off of, the 2000s saw his bizarre family dynamic broadcast to millions, 2010s saw his comeback and releasing of even more excellent material, and finally the 2020s saw his final bow. Decade by decade, Ozzy was always there, and even as other legends seemed to pass, the ultimate irony seemed to be that the man who could have died about 50 times over defied all logic and remained fabulously alive.

Not since Lemmy’s death nearly 10 years ago has so much sorrow been felt by the our community, the general public saw The Osbourne's, sure, but they could never imagine just how huge his impact was to the metal crowd. That kid in the 70s putting on Master of Reality and hearing a riff as crunchy as cornflakes and hearing vocals soar like a falcon had his brain chemistry permanently altered and his humours balanced for the rest of his life. It’s like magic. In fact, if you have never enjoyed Sabbath quite as much as your friends do, then perhaps it’s time to balance our your humours too.

Not to mention the solo career working with many weird and wonderful musicians; Rhoads, Wylde, and Gus, sounding like henchmen from the pits of Hades. They didn’t try to be Iommi, they tried to be legends of their own. And through the waning days of the 20^th century the Ozzman came to scare squares everywhere (try saying that three times fast).

In a raging musical whirlwind, the working class Brummie boy is launched into superstardom, and no matter where he was or who he was with, Ozzy simply existed to perform. His lifeblood was concerts, his organs were albums, and he injected as much creativity into his musical pursuits as he allowed. He rocked so hard that his last album was only a few years ago. If Ozzy believed in one thing, it was in music until the very end. That overwhelming desire to be on-stage defined him. At Villa Park, he visibly attempted to struggle out of his chair, he raised his hands and clapped like there was no tomorrow. The rest of us could barely keep up, but Ozzy kept going - in fact it seemed to be giving him even more energy. He was unstoppable.

Lemmy didn’t get to go out like this, nor did Dio. Many other music legends will never be able to say that they got the final bow and a peaceful rest, the idyllic end to a life dedicated to music. The saddest thing about the passing of Ozzy is the precedent it sets, figures like him were born and bred in the 20^th century and in our modern squeaky-clean cultural void people like this just don’t come about anymore. Sadly those days are over, and these icons will pass into memory. There will never be another Ozzy Osbourne.

But hey, at least Ozzy Zig has gone out with a gig.

Rest in Peace, Ozzy. Just know that we love you, and we’ll never forget you.

Words: Kiarash Golshani